The present invention pertains to the creation of a software representation of feature bundles in multistage configuration trees to provide product option codes; more particularly, the present invention pertains to the creation of a software representation of product option codes for a family of similar products or systems, based on the extension of feature bundles in multistage configuration trees and the underlying primitive feature models.
In successful commercial product line organizations, the number and diversity of products deployed can grow to be extremely large, partially due to the efficiencies made available from systems and software product line engineering (PLE) tools and methods. In market segments such as automobiles, it is not unusual for companies to manufacture millions of product instances every year, in thousands of different “flavors”.
Product option codes, or product configuration codes, are used by these companies to express the manufacturable or salable options that can be selected and combined when producing a particular product or system “flavor”. A particular product or system that is being manufactured or sold can be described in terms of the choices for all of the available product option codes.
During the engineering and manufacturing of a product family, its product option codes are often used to create the mapping from an option selection to determine the mechanical, electrical and software parts needed to realize the option. For product lines such as automobiles, this requires engineers to create mappings from product option codes to thousands of parts. Any error in these mappings can result in defective products, product recalls, manufacturing line disruptions, and more.
Further exacerbating this expense and risk, product option codes for one family can be slightly different from another family. For example, a “sport package” option for a pickup truck family may be different from the “sport package” for a luxury sedan family. The requires each product family to have its own set of product option codes and the full set of expensive and error prone mapping from hundreds of product option codes to thousands of mechanical, electrical and software parts. This mapping may need to be repeated dozens or hundreds of times per year in companies such as automotive manufacturers.
Even small improvements in creating and managing product option codes can provide dramatic economic and efficiency benefits.